San Francisco Public Library

San Francisco Public Library : Michelin's recommendations

Opened in 1996, San Francisco's new $137 million Main Library (James Ingo Freed & Cathy Simon) was built next door to the "Old Main," now the Asian Art Museum. The main facade, facing City Hall, reveals an updated version of Beaux-Arts classicism, while the Hyde Street elevation presents an angular, contemporary face. The seven-story interior, replete with catwalk bridges, shelves of books, artworks and an asymmetrical skylit atrium, boasts multimedia computers and access to electronic databases as well as to books and magazines. Changing displays of art and literature are presented in the lower-level Jewett Exhibition Gallery.